NASA says another asteroid flew past Earth today. Check out mind-boggling statistics of this massive 134-foot asteroid.
NASA, using its various space and ground telescopes, found a 134-foot asteroid heading precariously toward Earth. The asteroid passed very close to Earth today. This particular asteroid has sparked concern and concern among space agencies as it was discovered just a week ago on September 21, 2022. The statistics of this asteroid are mind-boggling! Not only is it big, it was spotted hurtling toward the planet at lightning speed. The asteroid was classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid due to the proximity of its encounter with Earth.
Details on asteroid 2022 SE6
Asteroid 2022 SE6 is different from other asteroids because it does not belong to the Apollo group of asteroids, but to the Aten group. According to the-sky.org, the asteroid takes just 303 days to complete one orbit around the sun. The maximum distance from the sun during this orbit is 152 million kilometers and the minimum distance is 112 million kilometers.
Asteroid 2022 SE6 was sighted today at a blazing speed of 4 km per second, according to NASA. The asteroid approached the planet in the early hours of today from a distance of 1.5 million kilometers. While this asteroid was not expected to hit Earth, things could have changed if there had been a slight deviation in its path due to interaction with Earth’s gravitational field. It could have changed the asteroid’s orbit and sent it to Earth for a surface impact.
How is an asteroid’s orbit calculated?
An asteroid’s orbit is calculated by finding the elliptical path around the sun that best fits the available observations of the object using various space and ground telescopes such as NASA’s NEOWISE telescope and the brand-new Sentry II algorithm. That is, the calculated path of the object around the sun is adjusted until the predictions of where the asteroid should have appeared in the sky at different observed times, match the positions where the object was actually observed at that same time.